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This post has had its issues (hah! librarian pun there *snorts*). It was almost complete, and yes, it WAS saved (you hear that WordPress?!), and then it disappeared. Poof. Just like that. Into the ether. And no amount of swearing, stomping of feet and gnashing of teeth would bring it back.

So, I wrote it all again. Calmly. Saving after every addition. And then it half of it FRIGGIN’ DISAPPEARED AGAIN! So please read it, click on the links and think of the amount of effort that went into bringing you these snippets of interwebby goodness. This is one post I’m very happy to see the back of and get it published!

YALSA’s 2012 Teens’ Top Ten Winners – a teens choice list of favourite books from the previous year. I have to admit I have only read five of these (the rest are now on reserve!). How about you? (via The Hub)

A white-edged raging defence of comic books An excellent post by Richard Newsome, who was the star author on the Christchurch Kids Blog during October. I especially like his comment that “rather than branding a kid as a reluctant reader, maybe they just need the right thing to read.” Yes! (via Christchurch Kids)

Get out your pipe cleaners, start your hot glue guns and strap on your safety glasses – some great ideas for displays here at the Teen Programming in Libraries board. I especially like the Q-Tip Art and the Paint Swatch bookmarks. Oh and the Shy Bookclub Discussion Tables. (via YALSA blog)

I’ve recently finished The Shadow Girl by John Larkin (this was the one Rachael was reading in our last post), and I highly recommend it. It’s one of those ones that sticks in your mind long after you’ve finished it. I’m now reading Antarctica: An Intimate Portrait of the World’s Most Mysterious Continent by Gabrielle Walker – and it is an excellent book. She has a great ability to weave fact and anecdote and personal impressions together to create a very enjoyable read. I’m really looking forward to starting David Levithan’s Every Day, which is next on my list and has come highly recommended by everyone who has read it.

Rachael returned my copy of Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Boys with a sticky note on it that said: “Oh. My. Gawd. That was awesome!” And yes it is. We both agree it is her best work yet. This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz was pretty awesome too by all accounts.

And last but not least – the Polar Bears! I know that this is neither bookish, nor librarianish, but hey, it’s my blog post and if I want to put in a link to polar bear live webcams then I will! The webcams are live 8am-4pm CST, which, if I’ve worked it out correctly is 2am-10am NZDT. Outside of those hours they play highlights of previous activity. There are a few camera sites from which to choose, so you should have a good chance of seeing some cool polar bears doing cool polar bear stuff. Go on. Click the link. You know you want to. (via @PolarBears)

Yes! Like that annoying rash, we’re back (and with a fresh supply of ointment).

You know how you’ve had that feeling that something’s been missing in your life, but you couldn’t quite work out what it was? Well, we’re here to fix all that, and provide you with lots of interesting snippets and links and pearls of wisdom for your general edification.

A very interesting infographic from Goodreads tracking the popularity of dystopian fiction and comparing it to important events in world history.

What have the Trolleyed chicks been reading recently? I’ve just finished Freeze Frame – a beautiful collection of photos & accompanying stories from acclaimed wildlife cameraman Doug Allan. I love this book, and I don’t want to return it to the library! If you have it on reserve, I’m sorry, you will just have to wait til I have finished poring over every page. It is now on my must buy list.

At the same time I was reading C J Box’s latest Joe Pickett thriller Force of Nature. This book focuses more on Nate Romanowski, who has been a supporting character to date. I do love Box’s characterisation and I enjoyed learning more of Nate’s background and motivation. Seeing Joe through Nate’s eyes was also interesting. And as always, Box’s descriptions of Wyoming has only deepened my desire to go there…one day.

Rachael and I have both recently read John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars – which we both just loved. Green’s writing is pitch perfect, and The Fault in Our Stars would have to be his best yet.

Rachael also discovered The Shadow Girl by John Larkin – a story about a 14 year homeless girl. The story is told in alternating chapters between the author interviewing the girl, and the girl herself. From Rachael’s description of it – it sounds a very moving and compelling story – highly recommended.

I also see on Rachael’s LibraryThing page she has been reading 48 Shades of Brown – I’m not sure if I want to know how that one turns out!

If you want to follow what we’ve been reading we both have accounts with LibraryThing (being library geeks we like listing and tagging books – it gives us a sense of satisfaction to see them all lined up). Our pages are Rachaelistic and SarahCCL. (I’ve just spotted Tim Gunn’s Fashion Bible on Rachael’s page – oooh! Reserve has now been placed 🙂 )

Long Live Paper – Interesting article from The New York Times about the demise of the paper textbook. The comment about the possibility of whenever someone wants to read something they will require a power source resonated with me, particularly given events of the last 2 years in Christchurch (via Library Link of the Day)

An excellent post on internet safety, the third video is particularly chilling. Please share this widely – it is especially poignant in light of the recent tragic death of Amanda Todd. (via Lucacept)

YA stuff

The theme for the upcoming YALSA YA Literature Symposium is The Next Big Thing. As a lead-up to the symposium, YALSA’s The Hub blog has been posting 31 Days Of The Next Best Thing. There have been some great posts so far, and it definitely worth checking out over the rest of October. As for the symposium itself, there are some great speakers and topics on the schedule – it’d be great to be able to go. However, I’m sure there’ll be a twitter hashtag for us to follow – hopefully more on this closer to the time. (via YALSA blog & The Hub blog)

Looking for a way to combine the time sink that is Pinterest with your commitment to keeping up to date with young-people-these-days? Then check out this list of YA authors on Pinterest. And this is why I put this as the last link on this post, as I know that once you click on Pinterest, you’ll be lost for the next hour. (Can’t remember the source for this link, sorry.)

Well folks, that’s it for the moment. Keep applying the ointment liberally, and we’ll be back again in a few weeks with more goodies to share.

In the meantime, any comments, suggestions, or bribes will be gratefully received.

My goodness, I’ve been trying to publish this post for AGES! Silly things keep getting in the way like, aftershocks and rehearsals for a play which opens tomorrow night! So, here are a bunch of links which I’ve been hoarding for your pleasure. Enjoy!

Melville Louis Kossuth Dewey was born on December 10, 1851 to a poor family who lived in a small town in upper New York state. Keenly interested in simplified spelling, he shortened his first name to Melvil as a young adult, dropped his middle names and, for a short time, even spelled his last name as Dui.

He was just 21 when he developed the Dewey Decimal Classification system we still use to this day. Thanks Melvil! Our libraries wouldn’t look the same without you.

Ever wondered what you call a group of gnomes? Or the correct term for a collection of archangels? Don’t you just wish you had a handy chart to look up stuff like this? Once again, we at Trolleyed are here to help. Read on, dear Reader, read on.

Books & authors

A couple of great posts on Scott Westerfeld’s blog recently. The first one, Genre Cooties, addresses some of the negative press that steampunk had been attracting. However it was this quote that really resounded with me:

THIS is why I don’t write for adults. Their heads are all full of genre cooties and “Taj Mahal? Nah, don’t like tombs.” Whereas a kid will come home from the library with a mystery, an sf novel, an autobiography, and three books about sharks. That’s how kids read, and when something’s cool and fun and awesome (or weird and gnarly and thought-provoking)

That got me thinking….why do we lose that open minded attitude to books? We do tend to get set in our ways, and in the types of books we read. So, how do we change it? How do we challenge ourselves to be less adult (and boring) and more child-like in our selection of books?

Scott’s second post French Steampunkery is about his visit to Machines of the Isle in Nantes, France. This photos in this post had me squeeing with delight. The steampunk creations are just magnificent. The elephant is awesometastic.

YALSA (The Young Adult Library Services Association) now has an official research journal. The journal is open access and is peer-reviewed. It is sure to be a useful resource for those working and studying in the CYA area.

Techy/interwebby stuff

Google’s 20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web – this is full of useful answers to all sorts of computer stuff (y’know – all that stuff that you were too afraid to ask anyone in case it made you look stupid). I love the presentation too – very nice.

And last, but definitely not least….a very handy chart for you to print out and stick on your fridge. A list of the collective nouns for supernatural beings (and my apologies, I can’t remember the source for this chart). My personal favourites are a lawn of gnomes, and that The Borg is just that – The Borg. Not so sure about a fondle of unicorns though.